In between grabbing pints on the new Clocktower’s patio and enjoying yesterday’s gorgeous weather, I spent a fraction of the afternoon gleaning information on Ottawa’s penalty killing numbers from this past season.

This past season, the Senators were tied for having the 20th best PK success rate in the league at 81.6-percent. One year removed from having the ninth-best mark at 83.7-percent, the penalty kill is one of the few areas that suffered once Paul MacLean took over as the new head coach of the Senators.

The following is the composition of how MacLean handled his roster. For the sake of this piece, I’ve set some parameters. To be included, players have to have played in more than 20 games and had to average 50 or more seconds of SH TOI/G.

It’s interesting to note that Smith’s struggles were noticed by the coaching staff. When it came time to the postseason, Smith had his PK ice-time reduced to 0:41 per game. Zenon Konopka was the beneficiary of Smith’s minutes. Thanks to his faceoff prowess, MacLean entrusted Konopka with Smith’s minutes and those important defensive zone starts.

After a season in which he was actually quite effective on the PK – he was only on the ice for 3 goals against while averaging 1:28 of SH TOI/G – Erik Karlsson had his shorthanded minutes cut back so that Paul MacLean could make better use of his elite offensive talents by giving him more even strength minutes.

Despite seeing his total shorthanded TOI be reduced by approximately 47 minutes from last season, Chris Phillips was on the ice for 6 more power play goals against. Much like Smith and Condra, Phillips was victimized by a terrible on-ice goaltender save percentage.

As an easy target of derision by the fans and media, Kuba took a lot of flack last summer for having a season that had many fans yearning for the day his contract expired or the day he was dealt; whichever came first. With the likelihood that he will be hitting unrestricted free agency on July 1st, management will have to replace his top pairing minutes and his shorthanded minutes. Regardless of how you feel about Kuba and how much Erik Karlsson’s performance inflated his worth, it’s going to be a tall order to fill this role and do it an economic fashion.

Up front, for a few of the Senators incumbents to raise their profile, they will have to improve their talents in the faceoff circle. While the addition of a healthy Peter Regin (49.2%) could help offset some of the minutes, both he, Zack Smith (48.9%) and Jim O’Brien (47.3%) have to get better off the draw. In doing so, their ability to get puck possession off of the draw could go a small way into ensuring that Ottawa’s PK improves next season.